Batty and Bouchard with top Canadian results on Day 2 at Albstadt World Cup
Round 2 has it's ups and downs for Canucks
The second round of the cross-country mountain bike World Cup continued on Sunday in Germany. After Canadian success on the first day with Peter Disera’s under-23 third place finish, national champion Emily Batty was the top Canadian on the result sheet on Sunday. Léandre Bouchard also had a career-best World Cup performance finishing 16th in the elite men’s race.
“The first two World Cups of the year are always challenging—especially after an Olympic Games. New riders emerge and established riders are still rebuilding fitness,” explained Canadian head coach Dan Proulx.
A hard fought day or @emilybatty & @cpendrel. They both overcame mechanicals and earned a top 20 placing in the overall after 2 rounds. ???
— Cycling Canada (@CyclingCanada) May 28, 2017
In the elite women’s race, Emily Batty (Trek Factory Racing) and Catharine Pendrel (Clif Pro Team) were looking to build off of last weekend’s race in the Czech-Republic. Batty was riding in seventh place before a flat tire slowed her in the races final lap and she finished 10th. Catharine Pendrel had moved up to fifth but a crash saw her move down the standings and into 14th by the finish line. Both had slow starts meaning they had been working throughout the race to move up into the tp-10.
“Even though I was in the third row it worked out fine for me and I had a good start,” said Batty whose first World Cup performance was a dissapointing 17th in Nove Mesto na Morave. “I lost a lot of time on the first climb because it was so loose. I got up as far as seventh on the last lap, I think and then I rear flat on the second last descent. So I’m happy with tenth, it’s better than last week and I felt like I was racing more like myself.”
Also in the elite women’s field was Sandra Walter (Team Canada) who raced to 24th, Cindy Montambault (Team Canada) who finished in 39th, Haley Smith (Norco Factory) was 47th and Catherine Fleury (Team Canada) finished 48th. Yana Belomoina of Ukraine was the winner on the day.
“Catharine and Emily are still very much on track with where we feel they should be in a post-Olympic year,” head coach Proulx explained. “The higher the level of performer, the more important the periodization of rest and recovery across the entire quadrennial becomes. They’re where we need them to be right now. I have total confidence in them.”
Léandre Bouchard was the top Canadian in the elite men’s field. His 16th place was a career best result at the World Cup for the 24-year-old who worked his way through the field in the race.
“I’m pretty proud, this is my best result ever at the World Cup,” said Bouchard. “The course is one of the most physical we have on the World Cup, with pretty long and steep climbs. This wasn’t the best course for me because I am so tall, but when you have the legs, you have the legs. I started back, but I just kept looking for places to pass and slowly move up. There was an opportunity with the heat also as people got tired, so the strategy was to just keep moving up when I could.”
The world and Olympic champion Nino Schurter of Switzerland won ahead of cyclocross phenom Matthew van der Poel who put in a strong performance just days after racing and winning on the road in Belgium. Canadian champion Derek Zandstra (Cannondale-3Rox) was 24th, Raphael Gagné (Cannondale-3Rox) finished 41st, Andrew L’Esperance (Team Canada) was 68th and Evan McNeely (Team Canada) crossed in 113th.
In the U23 women’s race, Anne-Julie Tremblay (Equipe du Quebec / Cyclone d’Alma) held her own finishin 16th and sits 20th overall after a good result last weekend.
“The rides that Peter [Disera—3rd in U23 men] and Léandre did were exceptional. They’ve invested a lot of time and energy into gaining European experience since they were juniors,” Proulx said. “They’ve climbed each and every rung of the ladder over here. You can only gain their level of experience by being here—and working your way through the ranks. We aim to give as many riders as possible this experience in the hopes of finding other riders who can rise to the challenge like they did.”
